But who can doubt about the expediency, as well as the mercy and christian obligation, of fostering the poor and helpless orphan, whose natural protectors have been removed by the Providence of God? Naked, we must clothe them, for their helplessness cannot provide for their own covering; hungry, we must feed them, for they appeal to us with the moaning cry and innocent tears of childhood; strangers in this world, but just entered upon it, and left without a home to receive, or a parent's fostering care to protect them, we must take them in. We cannot resist or evade such an appeal, we know that it comes from a guileless petitioner, whose distresses no vice of its own has produced, and no exertions of its own can relieve. Should any one of you in your walks through our city during its inclement winter behold a child almost naked, shivering with cold and fainting with hunger, and did you learn that it had wandered unprotected from the home where its only surviving parent had just expired in all the wretchedness of poverty and disease, and finding its mother's voice silent, her hands that had cherished it cold, and her eyes closed, the little one had gone forth weeping and alone, would any of you refuse it a home, and food and protection?--It is this sacred duty which our Institution has performed for many such suffering and innocent beings. Where, if not to such an object, can the heart send forth its sympathies without restraint, and give itself to all the delights of a glowing generosity? But I need not tell you of these heavenly satisfactions as I see around me those who have long known and shared them, for this Institution has, from its foundation, been a favored and fostered one in our community. Many are the labors that have cheerfully been bestowed upon its interests, many and generous the contributions given to it, and many and ardent the prayers offered up in its behalf to the throne of grace. Of those who first united themselves in this work and labor of love, I find that all have been removed, and have gone to receive their eternal reward.